TWO MORE SURREY COUNCILS COMMIT TO RESETTLING REFUGEE FAMILIES

14 December 2016
Two more Councils within Surrey – Epsom & Ewell and Waverley – have committed to resettling refugee families under the Syrian Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme (SVRP)
The announcements were made within days of each other.
 
Waverley Borough Council has committed to resettling 5 families over five years. Julie Shaw from Waverley’s Family Support Team said:
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“We know this is a huge task and we welcome any help and support from the community… We’ll start to look for our first property in preparation for welcoming the first family sometime in the New Year.”
 
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council has committed to welcoming 10 families over five years.
 
This brings the total number of Surrey Councils to join the SVRP scheme to nine and follows Elmbridge Borough Council’s recent commitment to resettle 5 to 15 families over five years.
 
Elmbridge CAN is pleased to see two more councils commit to resettling families under this scheme.
 
While it’s an incredibly small commitment in view of the scale of the global refugee crisis, we appreciate that local authorities face a number of challenges in respect to taking refugees – especially in areas where affordability of housing is already an issue.
 
Elmbridge CAN volunteer, Vicki Felgate, said:
“We strongly encourage local community groups to not only influence councils in affluent areas to make a more generous response to the refugee crisis, but also to proactively support the council in putting the infrastructure in place to be able to do this.”
 
“We hope that with the support of local communities, councils will overcome their institutional restrictions and take bolder action to ‘do their part’ in what is the biggest global crisis of our generation.”
 
ABOUT THE SCHEME
Former Prime Minister, David Cameron, made a commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees in the UK by 2020. The Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme (SVPR) aims to achieve this by enabling local authorities to volunteer to resettle refugee families within their local communities. With 650 constituencies in the UK, this target means 30 refugees per constituency. 
 
Notes:
  • Mole Valley has committed to resettle up to 25 families.
  • Runnymede, Surrey Heath and Reigate & Banstead have each committed to resettle up to 10 families.
  • But it’s Woking Borough Council that is leading the way in Surrey with its bold commitment to resettle 60 families.
Image: Jazzmany / Shutterstock.com
Waverley Borough Council
 
Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme 

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